NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In my dreams I saw a city fall into the sea I heard the cries of thousands I saw flames that outshone the lamps of heaven & all the world was shaken At the novel's centre the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt hero leader irresistible force irrepressible spirit battling (and ultimately reconciling with) a strange otherworldly form that has taken possession of his undead body & soul This ancient & mysterious power & unearthly spirit of vampire lore has all the force history & insidious reach of the unknowable Universe It is through this spirit previously considered benign for thousands of vampire years & throughout the Vampire Chronicles that we come to be told the hypnotic tale of a great sea power of ancient times; a mysterious heaven on earth situated on a boundless continent -- & of how & why this force came to build & rule the great legendary empire of centuries ago that thrived in the Atlantic Ocean & as we learn of the mighty powers of this lost kingdom of Atalantaya the lost realms of Atlantis we come to understand its secrets & how & why the vampire Lestat indeed all the vampires must reckon so many millennia later with the terrifying force of this ageless all-powerful Atalantaya spirit